Two Night Stand

Trying to prove once and for all that Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus Two Night Stand often falls into the realms of romantic cliché. But while it doesn’t always work it does manage to address the pitfalls of dating in the digital age and is held together by two very endearing central performances.

Down on her luck Megan (Analeigh Tipton) is stuck in a career and dating rut. Worried that she’ll never get rid of her Megan’s flat mate (Jessica Szohr) encourages her to try online dating. Not wanting to commit to anything too soon Megan embarks on a casual “one night stand” date and ends up spending the night with Alex (Miles Teller). In the morning, after trading a few insults, the pair plan to go their separate ways only to discover that a major snow storm has them trapped in the apartment together and so begins a dissection of what went wrong the night prior.

Refusing to conform to the normal rules of a romantic comedy Two Night Stand still manages to fall into many of the pitfalls. Sure it gets “the boy-meets-girl, sleeps with her” out of the way pretty early on but it doesn’t stop the film from then languishing in the frustrating nature of will they, won’t they territory. It’s essentially Ross and Rachel from Friends told over a tight hour and a half running time.

The primary issue here is that with its limited location there’s rarely anything to latch onto other than a fun repertoire between Tipton and Teller. It’s the sort of script that would lend itself much more readily to a stage production than a filmic outing. But the dialogue is snappy, the honest assessment of both the perils and perks of online dating entertaining, and it has enough cute moments to, at the very least, keep a smile on your face.

It’s not going to challenge the bigger hitters of the genre like When Harry Met Sally, although it does in a more contemporary way try to address many of that film’s themes, but as a forgetful bit of romantic fluff Two Night Stand works. What frustrates is that in an age of online dating the film never really offers an opinion on the subject, rather skating over it to get to the more nitty gritty of the relationship issues.

Teller has long since proved himself to be a warm and funny screen presence, his nonchalant delivery managing to tread the fine line between smug and funny. Tipton meanwhile is solid in her first leading role. Proving to be an able supporting actress, especially in her affections for Steve Carell in Crazy Stupid Love, she brings no end of girl-next-door sweetness to Megan without ever losing sight of her slightly haphazard nature.

A warm and fuzzy little date movie Two Night Stand is a little too run-of-the-mill at times but still manages to evoke a hint of fun.